Entire Volume 17 issue 1 - Journal of World-Systems Research ...

BOOK REVIEWS 260
local kingdoms were able to use geographic, climatic, and geopolitical conditions to maintain a
degree of autonomy and to negotiate, often favorably, the degree and type of incorporation the
region experienced. In lowland areas presence of diseases not common in the north killed many
invaders. Mountainous regions presented difficult terrain and at times extremes of cold. Early
Han attempts to conquer the region (during the second and first centuries BCE) met with minimal
success and were finally abandoned because of the much more serious threats from the Xiongnu
in the north. Once the northern frontier was pacified, there were further Han forays into Yunnan,
but serious attempts at conquest did not begin again until the third century during the Warring
States period. Later one local kingdom, Nanzhoa, was able to play Tang China and Tubo (Tibet)
against each other to maintain some autonomy. Early in the tenth century all three kingdoms
collapsed. Yang uses this complex history to argue forcefully these interactions formed a regional
world-system. This means, among other things, that traditional “national” histories are all
misleading. Later interactions with the Song were tempered by Song Dynasty’s dire need for
horses.
Subsequent Mongol conquest was also relatively mild. The Mongols were not interested
in territorial expansion per se but in trade and access to trade routes. As long as those goals were
met, local rule prevailed. The following Ming Dynasty sought stronger conquest of the region so
as not to be subject to the dependency that the Southern Song had experienced in their need of
horses. The Ming sought “to make Yunnan a permanent part of China” (Ch. 3, para 77; p. 95
cloth).
The next chapter explores why and how rule of the region was primarily indirect through
local, native or indigenous, leaders. Yang argues that “Sinicization and indigenization were two
sides of the process through which a middle ground was negotiated” (Ch. 4, para 1; p. 102 cloth).
Chinese began rule of frontier peoples based on native customs, but with the intentions of
“civilizing” (sinicizing) them eventually. This took approximately five centuries in Yunnan hence
it is an excellent locale to study these process. Throughout there was a balancing of a need to
keep the frontier stable, to continue sinicization, and to use indigenous peoples to aid in frontier
defense. While the aim was clear, the execution often was messy or even unsuccessful.
The technique, begun under the Mongols, extended into the succeeding Ming Dynasty. It
consisted of a centralized, province wide administration. Then local leaders (princes) were
appointed to rule subregions. Third, local leaders (native chieftains) ruled in rural areas where
indigenous populations dominated. This constituted a “tripod” system. Local leaders had to pay
tribute and meet other obligations. However, these obligations did not preclude their continuing
payments to other states in Southeast Asia. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties the tripod was
modified by a gaitu guiliu policy that transformed native chieftains into a part of the imperial
administration. Over time this reversed the domination of ethnicity over administration to
ethnicity becoming a subdivision of administration. Gradually the sons of native chieftains were
taken to Chinese schools in central provinces and were trained in Chinese language and
administrative processes. When they returned home and came to power they were in effect agents
of sinicization.
The succeeding chapter (5) is in many ways the heart of the book. Yang shows that
sinicization and indigenization were sides of the same coin. They contributed to the emergence of
Yunnanese as provincial identity and in turn became an avenue for the absorption of some
Yunnanese practices in general Chinese identity and culture. After years of immigration, settling
of soldiers, and movement of traders by the end of the Ming the Han became the largest ethnic